The completion of CAG audit of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in the state might take four to five months. Principal Accountant General, Allahabad, Mukesh P Singh, who is heading the audit in the state, has called a meeting of all the top medical officials of the state, including Director Generals, Additional Directors and Chief Medical Officers regarding the auditing on Thursday. “We will take around four to five months to...

-The Indian Express   Accepting the Uttar Pradesh government’s request, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will start a special audit of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in the state from Monday. The CAG, through the Principal Accountant General (Civil Audit), Uttar Pradesh, will audit NRHM schemes since the beginning of the scheme up to March 31, 2011 in 24 districts. For the auditing, five zonal auditing wings have been created in Lucknow,...

-The Times of India   The Central Information Commission (CIC) has rejected objections raised by the Supreme Court directing it to disclose details of medical reimbursement of judges in the last three years and the rules relating to appointment of retired judges as arbitrators. Clubbing together three RTI applications of activist S C Agrawal, the commission also directed the apex court to disclose the list of all resolutions passed by meetings...

Over the last few decades thenon-party volunteer organisations have been much more effective in Indian public space and more articulate in policy debates than the traditional Left parties. This essay, while recognising the manifold achievements of these organisations, reflects on the serious limitations of the activities of the voluntary sector and argues that when they usurp certain roles they can become a threat to representative democracy. [Pranab Bardhan (bardhan@econ.berkeley.edu) is at...

Mahtab Alam examines the trouble with the steel project and suggests a way out THE PROPOSED mega Posco project and the anti-Posco movement are back in the news after the violence at the proposed site on 16 July. According to the reports I got, on that day, eight platoons of police attacked and lathicharged peaceful protesters in the village of Nuagaon, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha. The protesters, despite being mostly women, were...